MPhil Thesis Presentation - The Aesthetics of Climate Change: An Indian Aesthetic and Buddhist Environmental Perspective

Abstract:

This thesis aims to introduce an Indian aesthetic approach to the domain of Environmental and Ecological Aesthetics, and looks to Buddhist conceptions of the natural world to ground such a theory in. We do so through the rasa theory of Indian aesthetics, where rasa signifies the essence of emotion felt in an aesthetic experience. Rasa having been generally limited to the scope of art experience, we turn to a host of ancient as well as contemporary sources to make a case for its ‘real-world’ applicability- focusing in specific on the adbhuta rasa, the rasa of wonder. We locate this experience of wonder in an aesthetic experience of natural environments, arguing for an ecological understanding of nature, and how in our engulfment in nature we might have a temporary experiencing of ānanda (pure bliss) through an amazement at and with the ecological design of nature. We turn then to the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (TGS) and in it highlight a case for the adbhuta rasa as motivating one to a state of ānanda (pure bliss), which results in a joyous questioning of notions. We extend the implications of the experience of the adbhuta in the TGS to examine if a similar undertaking is possible in our encountering of nature. Recognising joyous questioning as a form of action as well as leading to a tangible desiring of realisation in the TGS, we examine the tangible action that the experience of the adbhuta in natural environments might lead to. We argue that in the desiring for ānanda experienced in the natural world, one would look to relive, recreate and indulge in it further, only to realise that anthropogenic climate change is destroying the ecological relations in nature that rendered a wonderous experience possible. It is such a realisation we argue that shall lead to climate action, and we examine through the outlining of a Buddhist sensibility of the environment as well as aesthetics what the nature of such action might be. Lastly, we examine our theory in the context of an altering natural world, as well as look to various peoples movements to highlight the traits the proposed climate action might encompass.